How Big is Your Epeen? A Study of Hegemonic Masculinity in Communication on the World of Warcraft Forums

Carina Wine

Thu., June 11, 11:00–12:30, Class of ’24 (4th floor, East Central)

This paper is the result of an ethnographic study I carried out on the World of Warcraft priest forums for 2 months in 2007. The study combines firsthand player knowledge, email interviews, and forum posts to explore new definitions of gender in MMORPGs. Gender in game studies has been mostly viewed as being based off of the existing actual gender of the player in a real life context. This overlooks elements of discourse that are gendered without being rooted in biology. With a more sophisticated lens of gender analysis we see that player communication, as recorded by the forums, can be a useful area of data to determine the values of a community.

Using Judith Butler’s “gender as performance” theory, player communication can be contextualized by gender within the community it exists in. Butler asserts that gender is performed through a repetition of acts that bear a similar resemblance to theatrical acts. The version of gender that is performed on the Forums can be found with Susan Bordo’s “phallic theory,” which states that many of the attributes we ascribe to the male penis is actually its non-biological twin: the phallus. Masculinity is performed by extending the persona of the phallus — to be hard, strong, and conquering. Emotional “softness” is discouraged, and players are expected to be anesthetized to emotional pain. Thus, the community’s definition of hegemonic masculinity manifests in the concept of “epeen”. With masculinity being a performance and a choice we see how the players have shaped the dialogue along the culturally acceptable definition: to be strict, hostile, masterful, and powerful. Epeens can be developed by women since this phallic persona is available to anyone willing to incorporate the masculine values of the community into the self.

This has the effect of establishing a high level of hostility as the norm and steeping the communication in an aggressive mentality. Performance is prized while non-competitive play is marginalized. Instead of a neutral ground of player communication, posts are rife with elitism and hierarchy. All of this takes place on a backdrop of performative quality so players are not just posting, they are also seeing and being seen by using their profiles to take determine of how they measure up to others and to compare epeens. Conformity is encouraged and the standards are set by a restricted group that defines itself, usually by raiding accomplishments.

Perceptions about communication on the internet often evoke more egalitarian ideals like openness and equality, but this is not the case in the World of Warcraft forums. Existing gendered ideals have carried over into cyberspace, and the communication on the forums can provide an insight to the large-scale player environment of the game itself. Despite the prevalence of superficial gender diversity, such as the large amount of female characters, the real population behind the avatars asserts itself with an unequivocal masculinity. Superficial gender ambiguity is trumped by the overwhelmingly male demographic and the hegemonic masculine values to which such a player base ascribes.